I LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



2 Chap. .._E.f^^T.___ 

i Shelf _ 1 .3.C.t 

3 ■ 



S UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. | 



f 



EULOGY 



OF 



HON. STEPHEN ARNOLD DOUGLAS, 

ONE OF THE REGENTS OF THE 

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 



PREPARED AT THE REQUEST OF THE BOARD 



BY 

HON. SAMUEL S. COX, 

OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 



MAY, 1862. 




WASHINGTON: 4 
PUBLISHED BY THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 
1862. 



PHTLADELPHIA : 
COLLINS, PRI^NTTER. 



EXTRACT FEOM THE PROCEEDINGS 

OF THE 

BOARD OF REGENTS OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 



At a meeting of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution, held May 1, 1862, Professor Henry, the Secretary, having 
announced the death of Judge Douglas, one of the Kegents, the 
following resolutions were offered by Hon. Lyman Trumbull, and 
unanimously adopted. 

Resolved, That in the death of the Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, 
the Smithsonian Institution has been deprived of a most zealous 
friend ; the Board of Regents of an active and attentive member ; 
and the country of a distinguished and influential citizen. 

Resolved, That the Board of Regents deeply sympathize with the 
bereaved relatives of the deceased, and that a copy of these resolu- 
tions be transmitted to them. 

Resolved, That Hon. S. S. Cox be requested to prepare a suitable 
notice of the Hon. S. A. Douglas, to be inserted in the journal of 
the Board of Regents. 



EULOGY. 



In February, 1854, Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, 
while a Senator from that State, was appointed one 
of the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, and 
continued a member of the Board until the time of 
his death, on the morning of the 3d of June, 1861. 
From the pursuits of his life and the peculiarities of 
his course, it might be thought that he was not well 
qualified to discharge properly the duty of a trustee 
of a fund intended for the increase and diffusion of 
knowledge among men. But this would be a mistake, 
for, although he had given no special attention to any 
branch of science, yet his mind was of that compre- 
hensive cast which enabled him duly to appreciate 
the nature of the bequest, and the general principles 
of the different plans which had been proposed for 
carrying it into execution. It is true, as I am in- 
formed, that before he was elected a Regent — he had 
adopted the popular idea — that the bequest was in- 
tended merely to diffuse useful knowledge among the 
people of the United States, yet when he came to 
study the precise words of the will of the founder. 



6 



and caught, as he immediately did, the peculiar idea 
of the object intended, namely, the extension of the 
bounds of science, and not merely the teaching of 
what is already known, he fully adopted the views on 
which the present organization of the Institution is 
based, and ever after continued a warm advocate and 
an able supporter of the measures now in successful 
operation for the realization of the liberal and enlight- 
ened intention of James Smithson. 

In accordance with the usage heretofore observed 
in similar cases, a resolution having been adopted 
directing the preparation for the proceedings of the 
Board of Regents, of a sketch of the characteristics 
and incidents of his life, and the duty of furnishing 
this having been assigned to me, I address myself to 
the task with an earnestness that is only tempered by 
my fear that I have not sufficient time or sufficient 
ability to do full justice to the memory of one whom 
I admired as a public man, and sincerely loved as a 
friend. 

It is, indeed, pre-eminently fitting that the name 
of Douglas, so fondly cherished by the nation, and 
so familiarly spoken wherever American statesmanship 
is known, should be honored in the journals of this 
Institution, for whose prosperity he evinced so earnest 
a desire. It was not merely as one of its Regents 
that he showed himself the true and enlightened 
friend of objects kindred to those of this establish- 
ment. He ever advocated measures which served to 



7 



advance knowledge and promote the progress of hu- 
manity. The encouragement of the fine arts, the re- 
warding of discoverers and inventors, the organization 
of exploring expeditions, as well as the general diffu- 
sion of education — were all objects of his special 
regard — whether in the councils of his State, or in 
the hall of the Senate of the Union. 

Stephen A. Douglas was born at Brandon, in 
Vermont, on the 23d of April, 1813. Like many, 
perhaps I should say like most, of the rural neighbor- 
hoods of New England, Brandon contained a highly 
intelligent and energetic population, independent alike 
in thought, speech, and the conduct of their public 
affairs ; and doubtless the fact of his early years 
having been passed under the influence of the daily 
life and conversation of such neighbors, had some 
share in imbuing the boy with the sturdy independ- 
ence and resolute energy which the man was so re- 
markably and so triumphantly to exhibit throughout 
his at once brilliant and laborious career. 

His ancestors were of Puritan descent; and his 
father was a physician of both ability and reputation, 
but died at a prematurely early age, leaving his widow 
in very straitened circumstances, if not even in actual 
distress. It may, indeed, be only too reasonably feared 
that the latter was the case, for, excellent mother as 
she was known to be, she yet was unable to give 
young Stephen the full education he so much desired 
and so well deserved. He attended the district school 



8 



during only one-third of the year ; during all except 
the four winter months he was engaged in the hard 
labor of a farm or in the shop of a cabinet-maker. In 
this alternation of manual labor and imperfect and 
interrupted schooling, he continued till he was twenty 
years of age, when he migrated to Illinois, where he 
taught school for his support, while he resolutely 
studied law. In 1834 he was admitted to the bar, 
and we may judge of the character of his early efforts 
in the courts from the fact that in 1835, being then 
only twenty-two years of age, this young man, whose 
short life had been so largely taxed by adverse cir- 
cumstances, was elected State Attorney. From that 
time he was continually in the public service. He 
was, in turn. State Attorney, Member of the Legisla- 
ture, Secretary of State, Judge of the Supreme Court 
of Illinois, and Registrar of the Land Office; and 
subsequently he was a member of the lower house of 
Congress, and three times in succession he was elected 
by his adopted State to be United States Senator; and, 
as is well known, not long prior to his death he was 
the very popular though unsuccessful candidate for 
the highest executive office in the gift of the nation. 

These are the prominent points in the career of 
Douglas, whose life, commencing in obscurity and 
continuing through nearly the half of its whole dura- 
tion under the most adverse circumstances, ended in 
the full light of high position, and the full glow of 
popular favor. The principles which he advocated. 



9 



and to which he unwaveringly adhered, as well as the 
measures he proposed, have been the theme of both 
criticism and eulogy elsewhere, but the discussion of 
them here would be out of place, and in violation of 
a rule early adopted by the Board of Regents, that in 
the aifairs of this Institution, partisan politics shall 
forever be unknown. The points, however, in his 
personal character which enabled him to obtain so 
important a position, and gave him so great an influ- 
ence, not only over intimate friends and colleagues, 
but also over the public mind, may well claim our at- 
tention as a study no less important than interesting. 

If continued success be the test of merit, then must 
all admit that Judge Douglas was no ordinary man. 
That success in a single effort which may be referred 
to a fortunate concurrence of circumstances over 
which the successful man had no control, is not the 
true criterion of talent, is a truth which must be 
readily admitted. But when the course of an indivi- 
dual is marked through a series of years by a contin- 
ual advancement in the same direction, and especially 
when that advancement requires forecast, knowledge, 
perseverance, and energy, his success most assuredly 
is evidence of talent, if not of genius. 

Courage, energy, and a working power, both men- 
tal and physical, which have rarely been surpassed, 
were the qualities which chiefly served him in his 
earlier years. The son of a poor widow, and com- 
pelled to spend in bodily labor the time which other 

2 



10 



boys of his age pass in school, he would probably 
have remained a poor and obscure individual had it 
not been for the resolute will to elevate himself, and 
the courage, force of character, and determination to 
ACT in accordance v^ith that will which characterized 
his whole life. But of itself alone, that seemingly 
inexhaustible power of labor which obtained for him 
the suggestive sobriquet of " the little giant," would 
have been insufficient to effect the great success which 
he actually achieved, had it not been directed and 
aided by other mental characteristics, which some 
even of the warmest admirers and eulogists of the 
politician Douglas, seem to me very insufficiently to 
appreciate. 

In addition to the characteristics which I have 
already attributed to him. Judge Douglas was re- 
markable for his quick perception of the nature of 
events, and of the consequences which, with almost 
mathematical precision, he coidd predicate as to their 
results. He had, to a wonderful degree, the power of 
seizing on general principles, and of making them a 
part of his intellectual stores to be referred to in 
whatever particular case he might have to deal with ; 
and his retentive memory enabled him on the instant 
to call up alike a general truth, and a host of particu- 
lar facts in effective illustration of his premises. 

These qualities might have been modified, but could 
not have been increased, or even strengthened, by 
classical training, nay, in becoming more refined and 



11 



fastidious, it is far from certain that his mind would 
not, at the same time, have become less robust, ener- 
getic, and bravely self-reliant. 

We do not intend by this remark to throw doubt 
on the importance in general of that early mental 
discipline which is furnished by the training of the 
schools, but to present the suggestion that in parti- 
cular cases of extraordinary native vigor of intellect, 
determined on a single line of action, the gifts of 
nature cannot be essentially improved by the mould- 
ing influence of ordinary early education. These 
cases are, however, the exceptions to be avoided in 
directing the minds of youth and not the examples 
of the rule to be generally followed. 

Although Judge Douglas was no scholar in the 
pedantic signification of the term, yet his mind was 
duly cultivated in the study of the law, a branch 
of knowledge which, when pursued merely in its 
details and practised in its daily routine of office 
forms, may tend to obscure the perception of truth 
in frequent endeavors to make the worse appear the 
better cause, is yet in its proper study, through the 
expositions of Blackstone and the other systematic 
writers on English jurisprudence, one of the most 
liberalizing and enlarging pursuits to which the mind 
of youth or early manhood can be directed. The 
generalizations of this branch of knowledge were 
particularly fitted to improve the mind of young 
Douglas and to prepare him for his future career. 



12 



But even the intellectual qualities we have men- 
tioned are insufficient alone to account for the dis- 
tinctive character of the eminence he attained. With 
these he might have been the dexterous pleader, the 
sagacious judge, the acute politician, and yet have 
fallen very far short of that perfect empire which he 
held not only over the minds of the few but also over 
the hearts of the many. He had other qualities 
which may be cultured but which cannot be created. 

The lively sympathy with friends and associates, 
the intelligent and appreciating glance, the frank and 
hearty tone, the kindly grasp of the hand, the prompt 
and obviously disinterested service, these give to him 
to whom they belong a despotism which we are 
perhaps too proud to own, but which we cannot if 
we would resist. In the mere personal presence of 
Stephen A. Douglas there was a singular fascination; 
when you had once experienced the magic of his 
influence you were bound to him forever, his spirit 
seemed to dare you to rebel, and what w^as com- 
menced by admiration for his commanding ability, 
was consummated by his kind and genial manner. 
Bold, fierce, at once haughty in defiance arid dexter- 
ous in fence, he necessarily commanded admiration. 
But to admire is little else than to wonder; we 
admire a brave and gifted enemy quite as much, and, 
if a little terror be mingled, we may admire him even 
more than our true but less brilliant friend. But in 
the case of Douglas, we loved while we admired. 



13 



And this is the true key to his general popularity. 
His intellect conquered but his heart secured the 
conquest. His innate and ineradicable kindness, and 
his genial manner conciliated all who fell within the 
influence of his power. His political and public life 
exhibited but the mere outward husk of the man 
within; it was when you looked upon the gentle 
amenities of his home life, upon his love and devotion 
to his wife, tenderness to his children, and respectful 
attention to his friends, that beneath that somevv^hat 
rough exterior you could discern the character it 
concealed. 

It will not, I trust, be considered improper for m^e 
to refer to the fact that I was one among the many 
young men of the west who were honored by his con- 
fidence and bound to Judge Douglas by ties of en- 
thusiastic friendship, and that therefore I speak from 
personal experience when I refer to the magic of his 
presence and the controlling influence of his character. 

As I have already said, this is not the place or the 
occasion for entering into particulars as to his political 
opinions and acts, but, alike to his friends and his 
foes, I must say from the convictions of my head as 
well as the suggestions of my heart, that history will 
be false to her trust if she does not record the fact 
that Douglas was a true patriot as well as a sagacious 
statesman. If he was a partisan politician, he never 
wore his party uniform when his country was in dan- 
ger. It was a striking illustration of his character in 



this respect, that when the administration of our 
national affairs was committed to the hands of his 
political antagonists, he gave his hearty and generous 
support to the government at the moment it required 
his aid. 

Some have lamented his death as untimely and un- 
fortunate for his own fame, since it happened just at 
the moment when the politician w^as lost in the patriot, 
and when he had an opportunity to atone for past 
errors. But man does not change his nature so rea- 
dily ; Douglas was the same from the beginning to 
the end of his career, with views merely modified or 
enlarged by the expanding horizon which opened 
upon him from year to year, in his increasing elevation 
of thought and position. The words which escaped 
him in his last hour were the expressions of the real 
sentiments of his inner life. 

Observant of the causes which have led to our 
present civil war he ever strove by adjustment to 
avoid their disastrous effects. " I know not," said he, 
" what our destiny may be, but I try to keep up with 
the spirit of the age, to keep in view the history of 
the country, to see what w^e have done, whither we 
are going, and with what velocity we are moving, in 
order to be prepared for those events which it is not 
in the power of man to thwart." 

Placed at the head of the Territorial Committee of 
the Senate, it was under his direction that Territory 
after Territory and State after State were admitted into 



15 



the Union. The comprehensiveness of his views was 
exhibited in his great speech on the Clayton and Bul- 
wer treaty, on the fourth of March, 1853, wherein he 
enforced a continental policy and refused to prescribe 
limits to the area over which the principles of our 
government might safely be extended. 

His position on the Committee of Foreign Rela- 
tions gave him a breadth of view in regard to our 
relations with other countries, which was enlarged by 
personal observation in foreign travel, and in special 
historic research. His knowledge on this subject was 
conscientiously applied in the way which he deemed 
best fitted to advance the commercial and financial 
interests of our whole country. 

He died in the midst of the people of a district where 
he had been cherished and honored during the whole 
of his public life ; in a city whose commercial and 
material improvement was the pride of his heart, and 
a type of his own character. The maturity of his 
growth, the fertility of his resources, and his sturdy 
energy, rendered his life a microcosm of the great 
section of our country with which he was so closely 
identified. We may toll the slow bell for his departed 
spirit, we may drape ourselves in the emblems of 
grief; but if his friends and admirers would truly 
honor his memory, they will endeavor, like him in 
his last days, to moderate the heat of party strife, 
enlarge their views of political science, and emulate 
his growth in moral character and clear-sighted pa- 
triotism. 



EULOGY 



O K 



HOE STEPHE^[ AMOLD DOUGLAS, 



ONE OF THE REGENTS OF THE 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTIOIvf 



rREPAKED AT THE REQUEST OF THE BOARD 



HON. SAMUEL COX, 

OF THE HOCSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 



MAY, 1862. 



WASHINGTON: 
PUBLISHED BY THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 
1862. 



\ 



